Assessment confirms success of the Advanced Course on health information and evidence for policy-making

26-01-2018

An analysis and report on the participant response to the Advanced Course on health information and evidence for policy-making held on 27 June–1 July 2017 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, confirms the success of the course and provides valuable insight into opportunities to improve the course in the future.

The Advanced Course is a significant capacity-building activity of the WHO European Health Information Initiative (EHII), organized by the Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation at WHO Regional Office for Europe. Although prior evidence had indicated that past Advanced Courses were successful, the Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation wanted a deeper understanding of how the course content and modes of delivery affected participant satisfaction and the Advanced Course’s capacity-building impact.

Consequently, a set of quantitative and qualitative tools were used to survey and interview participants on the 2017 Advanced Course. 2 qualitative methods were used on 3 sources of data. This combination of methods enabled the analyst to differentiate positive and negative comments, assess the relative importance of themes identified in the data, and investigate which content, lecturers, and modes of delivery were most successful and how the course might be improved.

The report concludes by proposing key recommendations for future courses.